Saturday, January 08, 2005

Courage to Share (FastBreak Conference)

Happy New Year!! We hope that you had a great Christmas break and found some time to recover from the stress of school and exams. In Student Venture we had 7 FastBreak conferences right after Christmas and they went great! The story below is about a girl who attended our FastBreak in San Diego and felt God leading her to share with her friends how they could know Him. One of the most exciting things for me is to see teenagers take a stand for Christ among their friends and use their influence to lead others to Him.

>>> Mandi Grant, an intern with Student Venture in San Diego, CA, shares about what the Lord did in the life of a girl she's been working with while at Fastbreak this winter.

Having worked as an intern with Student Venture for a year and a half, one of my favorite parts of the ministry are our winter and summer conferences. I have just returned from our Fastbreak conference in Big Bear, CA, and I am once again thankful for the work the Lord did in and through the students that attended our conference. I had ten students attend Fastbreak from my ministry- half of the students who have been involved in the ministry all year, and the other half were friends of these students.

Emily was of the girls who attended the conference. She has been involved in a small group since her freshmen year and is currently leading a Bible study of freshmen girls. The conference was a great time for her to get away from the busy-ness of life and take time to listen to what the Lord has been saying to her.

One thing Emily has been learning is how to share her faith with her friends. She has invited friends to Student Venture outreach events, but has never personally shared what God has done in her life. The second night of the conference she shared how God once again told her she needed to share Christ with her friends, and gave her specific names of her friends she needed to pray for and share with once she returned back to school.

The next day at the conference the students went out into the town and took surveys, sharing Christ with those they could. Emily was very afraid to do this, but she went out anyway with the Lord's strength. She had the blessing and privilege of leading two teenage girls to the Lord right on the streets of Big Bear! Emily was so excited and has more courage to now go back to her campus and share with her friends.